The animal activist group is boiling mad over the actress' skin - her python skinned purse.

Luxe brands do what they call "seeding" -- they take their A list bags and send them out to A list celebs whom they want to be photographed with them. But somebody screwed up here.

Reese Witherspoon was not supposed to be busted carrying a four thousand dollar Chloe Paraty python bag, because python is illegal in the state of California. The python bags are not even for sale in the Golden State -- this bag was probably sent to Reese from Paris or New York.

A spokeswoman for PETA has gone on the record, saying, "No matter how much Reese paid for that bag, the animals paid a much higher price. Every year, millions of snakes are skinned alive." The spokeswoman goes on in her tirade about how badly the snakes have it when they get parted from their skin. But the fact remains -- are snakes ANIMALS? We generally want snakes to be dead, don't we?

What's ironic is that Reese has been named one of the Sexiest Vegetarians by PETA. PETA did say they understand that Reese just may be ignorant of the plight of pythons or that it's illegal to buy anything with python in the State of California.

Wow. Sometimes it's great to be a celebrity. Sometimes it's a case of anything you do can be used against you.